The story so far:
Amazon.Com has decided to get into the online streaming TV series cuz, you know, they’ve been having a good year and want to find a new way to lose money. Professional TV production just bleeds $$$, but it appears that this most popular of shopping sites just can’t keep itself from creating more loss leaders. (Like all those Kindle variations, dig?)
We’ve written before about Amazon Studios and its call for submissions from new creators, and even talked a little bit about some projects Amazon has bought. The latest announcement (via AllThingsD.Com)is that the following sitcoms are the company’s favorites:
- Alpha House, about “four senators who live together in a rented house in Washington DC.” Written by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau, who also made the vastly underappreciated “Tanner ’88” for HBO.
- Browsers, “a musical comedy set in contemporary Manhattan that follows four young people as they start their first jobs at a news website,” from former “The Daily Show” head writer David Javerbaum.
- Dark Minions, an animated series “about two slackers just trying to make a paycheck working an intergalactic warship,” from “Big Bang Theory” co-stars Kevin Sussman and John Ross Bowie.
- The Onion Presents: The News, “set behind the scenes of The Onion News Network.”
- Supanatural, an animated series about “two outspoken divas who are humanity’s last line of defense against the supernatural”; one of the producers is “The Daily Show” star Kristen Schaal.
- Those Who Can’t, “about three juvenile, misfit teachers,” written by three guys Amazon found via its open call for submissions.
What makes Amazon Studios’ creative process fun – and unique to this time and place (i.e., 2012 and the interwebs) is the info in this tweet from Peter Kafka:
The fun part: Amazon will post six pilots online, ask viewers to vote.allthingsd.com/20121220/amazo…
— Peter Kafka (@pkafka) December 20, 2012
Slightly more detail on this subject from Roy Price, the head of Amazon Studios:
Since launching our original series development effort, we have received more than 2,000 series ideas from creators around the world with all different backgrounds, and we are extremely excited to begin production on our very first set of pilots. The six comedy pilots will begin production shortly, and once they are complete, we plan to post the pilots on Amazon Instant Video for feedback. We want Amazon customers to help us decide which original series we should produce.
So stay tuned, Future Development Executives of Tomorrow. As soon as we find out how we can all vote/give feedback/whatever we’ll letcha know.